Pressure was growing last night for an inquiry into Prince Andrew’s links with Kazakhstan.

MPs and human rights campaigners said there was a worrying lack of transparency about the Duke of York’s business dealings with the former Soviet republic.

It follows revelations in Saturday’s Daily Mail that Prince Andrew acted as a ‘fixer’ by helping a Greek sewage company and a Swiss finance house pursue a £385 million contract in Kazakhstan.

Prince Andrew, centre, is facing calls for a probe into his dealings with Kazakhstan after leaked emails revealed he was involved in selling his Berkshire mansion to an oligarch despite previous denials

The Duke is accused of trying to set up that deal when employed as Britain’s roving trade ambassador. And emails published by the Daily Mail today reveal how:

Andrew was closely involved in organising the £15 million sale of Sunninghill Park in 2007 to Kazakh oligarch Timur Kulibayev, and the Duke’s staff went to great lengths to ensure the deal went through;

The Duke persuaded the Crown Estate to offer the oligarch a ‘grazing licence’ at a peppercorn rent for land close to Sunninghill;

Andrew tried to arrange for senior figures at the state-owned Royal Bank of Scotland, which owned the exclusive bank Coutts, to discuss wealth management for Kulibayev.

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After the sale, Sunninghill Park sat empty for more than eight years before being demolished earlier this year. Buckingham Palace has insisted that Andrew had played no part in the arrangements for the sale.

Yesterday, Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron told the Mail: ‘No one should be above the law and if evidence is put forward, then it should be investigated without fear or favour.’

Sir Vince Cable, the former Business Secretary, called for Andrew to be prevented from playing any official role in representing British trade overseas. He said: ‘It would not be right for him to be speaking for the British Government.’

Sunninghill Park, pictured, was sold to Timur Kulibayev in 2007 for £3million above its £12million asking price

Lib Dem leader Tim Farron, pictured, said 'no one should be above the law' regarding the Duke's deal

Shadow Commons leader Chris Bryant said: ‘I don’t think there has been enough transparency or scrutiny on the way this nebulous role has been used.’

The former Foreign Office minister added: ‘When I was at the Foreign Office, nobody could ever tell whether he was looking out for himself or whether he really had the interests of the country at heart.’

Robert Barrington, of Transparency International UK, the anti-corruption campaign group, told the Mail: ‘You would expect that any deals involving an official British trade envoy should be transparent, with clarity over what the deal involved, who was paid commission and how much commission was paid.

‘A set-up in which middle men take unknown cuts from unknown deals should be considered very high risk for corruption.’

Referring to the Greek/Swiss deal, Hugh Williamson, of Human Rights Watch, said: ‘This story is very concerning because it shows that new trade arrangements were being negotiated without being placed in the context of the UK Government’s policy on human rights and also because the Prince may have been benefiting personally from these deals.’

DAILY MAIL COMMENT

The Mail’s revelations about Prince Andrew’s personal and financial links with the despotic ruler of Kazakhstan and his acolytes are profoundly damaging for the Royal Family.

But almost equally distasteful has been the blatant attempt by Buckingham Palace to sweep them under the carpet.

On Saturday we disclosed that the Prince acted as a ‘fixer’ for a Swiss/Greek consortium bidding for infrastructure contracts in the oil-rich country.

His role, for which he was to be offered nearly £4million, was to smooth the way by persuading a powerful Kazakh oligarch – also a friend of his – to support the bids.

The oligarch – Kenges Rakishev – just happens to be the man who negotiated the purchase of the Prince’s house, Sunninghill Park, in 2007 at the hugely inflated price of £15million, and is a close ally of Kazakhstan’s autocratic president Nursultan Nazarbayev.

When Mail journalist Guy Adams first approached the Prince’s spokesman, he flatly denied that Andrew had had any involvement in the infrastructure deal.

We then furnished him with a copy of the personal email sent by the Prince to Mr Rakishev on behalf of the consortium.

The spokesman first suggested it must be a forgery but then tried – unsuccessfully – to stop its publication on privacy grounds.

And in further disclosures today, we reveal Andrew’s role in the sale of Sunninghill – aka ‘Southyork’ – to the Kazakhs, a deal in which the Palace previously suggested he had no personal involvement.

This constant dissembling not only exposes the Prince to accusations of dishonesty, it undermines the integrity of the entire royal household.

Labour MP Paul Flynn, who has campaigned for Parliament to lift its arcane rule that royals cannot be criticised in the Chamber, said Prince Andrew should lose his royal status.

He said Andrew and other ‘minor royals’ were often too constrained, adding: ‘These hangers-on lead a miserable existence.

‘We should liberate them from their status of minor royals and allow them to lead full, normal lives with proper jobs like they have always wanted. We are not short of officials who can cut ribbons in this country.’

Miss Thirsk even tried to secure a deal for the billionaire to lease two fields next to the mansion from the Crown Estate, the organisation which manages land on behalf of the British taxpayer, for a ‘peppercorn rent’ of £200 an acre.

The deal was never finalised. The emails also reveal that Andrew made an extraordinary attempt in 2011 to ensure that Coutts, the Queen’s bank, took the Kazakh oligarch on as a client.

Former Business Secretary Vince Cable, pictured, said the Duke should be prevented from representing Britain in any overseas trade deals

The house near Windsor Castle had been given by the Queen as a wedding present to Andrew.

It was put up for sale in 2003 but languished on the market for four years before being sold to Kulibayev for £15 million – £3 million above the asking price.

Kulibayev is the son-in-law of Kazakh dictator Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Andrew reportedly met the oligarch through his friend Goga Ashkenazi, a 36-year-old Kazakh billionaire who was raised in Russia but educated in England.

Buckingham Palace said it stood by its statement that Prince Andrew was not involved in the Sunninghill sale.

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Prince Andrew faces calls for inquiry into his deals with Kazakh oligarch